Deuteronomy 2–3

If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 2. Deuteronomy, chapter 2.

We said that Deuteronomy was really a series of sermons by Moses, his farewell address and three different sermons that he gives to the people. And we said that the first sermon that he gave is he is going to talk about what God has done. And that's really what he has done for us so far in chapter 1. He told us what God had done in taking them from Mount Sinai, where they'd been given the law, across the wilderness to the area of Kadesh Barnea.

And of course, at Kadesh Barnea is where they had that great failure. They sent in the spies. And 10 of the spies came back with that bad report. And unfortunately, the people believed the bad report instead of the word of Moses and Joshua and Caleb. And so God said, He said none of you will be able to go into the land except for Joshua and Caleb, who again, we took note of the fact that every time they're mentioned,

it's also with the addendum that they had a different kind of heart than the rest of the people because they followed God wholly. And so Joshua and Caleb would be allowed to go in. The rest of the people were to scatter in the wilderness. And that's what we pick up in chapter 2 as we continue on with what God had done, what God has done for the nation. So the first thing that we see in chapter 2 is what I would title, Leaving the Wilderness.

So we look at chapter 2, verse 1, and it says, Then we turned, we set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and circled Mount Seir for many days. And the Lord spoke to me, saying, You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north. Interesting. Interestingly enough, in verse 1, he's encapsulated about 38 years. 38 years of wandering in the wilderness, which if that was me, and I'd spent the 38 years in the wilderness with the children of Israel,

I would have summed it up in one verse too. I would have just said, and we just circled around for a whole lot of days. Isn't that fascinating that that's what he says? He goes, we turned and we went back to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. If you will, they went back to that Sinai Peninsula. And all they did was go. In circles in the Sinai Peninsula for 38 years.

That's so long to just go in circles, right? Now listen, I've missed my exit before, and I've had to go back in circles. And it's the most frustrating thing in the world to do. And you think, man, that only took me an extra hour. Not an extra person. Not an extra 38 years did it take me to have to circle around. But that's exactly what the nation of Israel did.

They roamed in that wilderness for 38 years. It's interesting because when you think about that verse 1 and that summation of it being that all they did was circle the mountain for that amount of time, we're reminded that time in rebellion against God is wasted time. Don't get me wrong. God turns it into something good. And he redeems it because God taught them important lessons along the way.

Lessons that we now take note of. But really when it came right down to it, that wilderness time was just wasted. And you have a choice when you've been in the time of wasted time. You can either wallow in the fact that you've lived in wasted time, or you can decide I'm not going to live in this any longer, and I'm going to move on. And that's exactly what God tells the nation of Israel.

As he says, verse 2, this is Moses, And the Lord spoke to me saying, You've circled this mountain long enough, now turn north. Do you notice that the exact same phrase was used in chapter 1 as in chapter 2? You see, the first time that Israel was at Mount Sinai, they had seen God in amazing ways. They had an amazing experience with God as the law was given.

They had an amazing experience with God as they saw the construction of the tabernacle and all of the implements in the tabernacle. They had an amazing experience with God when they saw Moses come down from the mountain with his face glowing because of being in the presence of God. They had an amazing experience with God of seeing him provide manna and then also the pillar of God. And then also the pillar of God.

The pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night. They had that amazing experience with God when the tabernacle was erected and God sent fire and consumed the sacrifice. They had that amazing experience with God. And you know as well as I do that when you have that great experience with God, we want to live in that one experience. Well, in chapter 1, God had to say, you can't live in the old experience.

Now it's time to move on to something new, the promised land. Only they refused to go into the promised land, and so they lived 38 years in rebellion against God. They lived 38 years in the wilderness of wasted time. And they had a choice at that point. You can either continue to live in the wasted time, wallowing in the fact that you've wasted all this time not pursuing God,

or you can start listening for God's voice when he says, you've circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north and head towards the promised land. The first time it was to get them out of the rut of experience. The second time it was to get them out of the rut of rebellion. And brothers and sisters, you know as well as I do that as believers in Jesus Christ,

when we spend time in the rebellion against Jesus Christ, when we spend time in the rebellion of sin, in the wilderness of wasted time, in the wilderness of unbelief, in the wilderness of life-dominating sin, eventually God speaks to us and says, you've circled this mountain long enough. You've lived in rebellion long enough. You've lived in defeat long enough. You've lived in wasted time long enough.

It's time to turn north and head towards the promised land. And I don't know about you, but when God speaks that to my heart, when I have found myself in those places where I'm living in the wasted time, whether it's because I'm living in direct rebellion against God, or because I've slipped into apathy, when I'm in that place and God says, it's time to stop circling the mountain. It's like your eyes sort of open. You open up and you're like, what have I been doing this whole time?

Why have I been wasting my time doing fill in the blank here? It's time to move on. It's time to move on towards maturity. It's time to move on towards victory. It's time to move on towards knowing God. And that's exactly what he calls for them to do. And so if that's you, if you've lived in that wilderness, if you've lived in that place of defeat, and God has said it's time to stop circling this mountain,

then it's time to move on. It's time to stop circling the mountain. And it's time to lay aside the disobedience. It's time to lay aside the apathy. And quite frankly, it's time to lay aside the wallowing. And it's time to move forward in your walk in relationship and service towards God. And that's what he calls them to do. And so as he does so, they begin their journey towards the promised land.

It says in verse four, command the people saying, you will pass through the territory of your brothers, the sons of Esau who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you. So be very careful. Don't provoke them for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat.

And you shall also purchase water from them with money so that you may drink. For the Lord, your God has blessed you in all that you have done. He has known your wonderings through the wilderness, through this great wilderness. These 40 years, the Lord, your God has been with you and you have not lacked a thing. So we pass beyond our brothers, the sons of Esau who live in Seir,

away from the Arabah road, away from Elath and Ezeon Geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab. Now, as they're on their way through this journey to the promised land, the first thing that God's going to begin to tell them is what's not theirs. He told him, you're about to go by the descendants of Esau. Now remember Esau is the other son of Abraham.

And so God, though Esau was that child of the flesh, God still had a plan for him and God still had an inheritance for him. Remember that was that promise that was made to Hagar when God spoke for the very first time in scripture directly to a woman. He made that distinct promise to her that Esau would still have a promised land that he would still be blessed by God. And he says, you're about to go through that land.

Remember recounting, what took place and says, you're not supposed to take anything from them. As a matter of fact, even when you go through the land, through their land, you should even buy any food or water that you come across on your way. You shouldn't take anything from them. And then he tells them why it's important that they treat the people of Esau this way.

It's because of the distinct blessing that God had given them in their lives. Because with that great blessing came a great responsibility. And he reminds them, of the blessing that they had. And I think that this is a neat little verse that's given to us right here at the end of verse seven, when he says, these 40 years, the Lord, your God has been with you and you have not lacked a thing.

This will not be the last time in the book of Deuteronomy that Moses reminds the people that while they were in the wilderness, two things were true. Number one, that God was with them. And number two, that they lacked nothing. Nothing. Now, in the world that we live in today, at least where most of us live today, we can sometimes feel like we lack things, but really what we lack is wants not needs.

Most of us aren't lacking too many needs in life and we can all look back. And if we're honest with ourselves at any point in time in our lives, and we can say, I truly have lacked nothing. I've always been taken care of. I've always been provided for. I've always had what I've needed. Maybe not always what I've wanted, but what I have. What I've needed in Moses will continue to remind the nation of Israel of this.

And the reason why he continues to remind the nation of Israel of this is because the nation of Israel has the same sort of short memory that we do. And when we're facing something difficult, we can forget that God up to this point in time has never once failed on any of his promises. God up to this point in time has never once left us high and dry. God has always provided for every single one of our needs.

Why? Because of the promise presence of God. What did we see repeated over and over again? Over and over again throughout the book of Genesis, throughout the book of Exodus and on through everything that we've covered so far. The promise that we've seen is the promised presence of God with the people. And I think sometimes in the really selfish world that we can live in right now,

the really selfish world that I can end up in sometimes right now, I forget that the greatest blessing that I have in my life has nothing to do with any of the things that God provides for me. It has everything to do with the. Presence that he's promised me. The fact that the greatest blessing that I have in my life is that wherever I go, God is right there with me.

I'm reminded of what the Psalmist says when he said, if I go up into the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, even there, you will find me. Your right hand will hold me because he's everywhere I go and he's with me all the time. And that promise presence of God is such a blessing in my life. And I think it's one of the blessings. We can absolutely take them.

Those for granted because it's not a tangible blessing, but it is the blessing that if we pay attention to it will bring the greatest peace to our hearts.

And so he goes on from there to say, don't mess with the people of Edom. Don't mess with the descendants of Esau. That's not your possession. Then he goes on from there to talk about the people of Moab. He says, middle of verse eight and we turned and pass through by the way of the wilderness of Moab. Then the Lord said to me, do not harass Moab, nor provoke.

Take them to war for I will not give you any of their land as a possession because I have given our to the land to the sons of lot as a possession. The meme live there lived there formerly a people as great, numerous and tall as the Anakim like the Anakim. They are also regarded as ref AM, but the Moabites called them a meme. The Horites formerly lived in Syria, but the sons of Esau dispossessed.

Them from before them and settled in their place just as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord their God gave them. He said the next place we came to was the area of Moab. But remember, Moab was one of the descendants of lot. Unfortunately, Moab has what we would call a shady history. If you remember, lot had to leave the area of Sodom and Gomorrah because of God's judgment.

And the only two people that escaped with him were his two daughters. And they, of course, feared that they, we would never find a man because they ended up in the hills and they said, what if we never can reproduce? And so in that super tragic story that's given to us there in the book of Genesis, they get their father inebriated and they both on consecutive nights end up having sex with him. And at that point in time, each of them produces a child.

One of them is named Moab through whom the Moabites come. What's fascinating to me is that through both of these kids, we'll talk about Moab here in just a minute. We'll talk about Ammon. The other son that came about through incest through a lot and one of his daughters, God still gave them a blessing. Isn't that fascinating? Isn't that a perfect picture of God's grace that God took a group of people who really came about and about the most evil way possible.

And God said, don't mess with them because I've given them this as a possession. That's not your possession. That's their possession. Why on earth did God care about the people of Moab? Because they were a descendant of lot who the new Testament calls a righteous man because of God's grace. So he says, don't mess with the people of Moab. And then we see this little parenthetical statement that's many believe was written later by an editor of the book of Deuteronomy about these people that lived in the area that the Moabites drove them out.

They were called the people of a meme. They were known as the ref AM or the, oh man, I'm gonna mess this definition up. The ferocious people, Lord or the fearsome people or something along those lines. But they were giants kind of like the Anakim were. And yet the Moabites drove them out just like the children of Israel are going to drive out the giants that come about in the land of Israel.

And so we see that they drove those people out. God says, leave them alone. They're not, that's not your land. I have a different land for you. Verse 13 now arise and cross over the brook Zered for yourselves. So we cross. Over the brook is a red. Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was 38 years until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp as the Lord had sworn to them.

Moreover, the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished. So it came about when all the men of war had finally perished from them. From among the people that the Lord spoke to me, saying, today you shall cross over our the border of Moab. Now in the midst of him telling the people what did not belong to them, God reminds them or excuse me, Moses reminds them of two things.

Number one, just how long it took them to get back to Kadesh Barnea. Now remember how long of a journey in chapter one, we said it would take from Mount Sinai or the Sinai wilderness to the area of Kadesh Barnea. Do you guys remember how many days that was? It took us like, Because 11 days is what it should have taken them. And instead it took them 38 years.

Better late than never. But we're reminded of what took them so long. They were under the hand of God's judgment at that point in time. As a matter of fact, I'd like to point out to you the fact that they had to journey in this wilderness until all of the men of war, as it says at the end of verse 14, had perished from within the camp as the Lord had sworn to them.

And then I'd like to point out something about verse 15. It says, The hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished. Almost every commentator agrees that this is a distinct statement that the men of war that died from the camp of the Israelites in those 38 years did not just simply die by a natural means. They died under the judgment of God.

God's hand was against them. Why? Because they failed to believe what God was able to say. What God was able to do. And because of that, they sat under that judgment of God. Because God loved the nation of Israel and wanted to see them move into the land. And whom God loves, he chastens. Whom God loves, he disciplines. And in the same way that the nation of Israel would be preserved by the destruction,

the destroying of those men of the flesh over those 38 years in the wilderness, in the same way because God loves us as individuals, he is completely content to destroy the areas of our flesh that will keep us from moving on into the promised land. As a matter of fact, until we're willing to submit ourselves under the disciplining hand of God, he'll allow us to keep wandering through that wilderness. He'll allow us to keep going around that mountain until we finally say, okay, Lord, you wipe out what needs wiped out in me. You take out the parts of me that aren't good any longer and only leave behind what is obedient to you.

And that's exactly what God did with the nation of Israel. So it came about, verse 16, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, that the Lord spoke to me saying, today you shall cross over Ar, the border of Moab. And when you come opposite the sons of Ammon, do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession. It is also regarded as the land of Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzumim, which is the cradle, which is a great name.

I don't even think I pronounced that correctly, but I should. And it's a great, if somebody ever scares you, you should be like, whoa, Zamzumim, right? And immediately you're like, that's a scary dude right there. Also sounds like what drives on the ice to clean it up, but that doesn't matter. Verse 21, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim.

Sidebar, have you noticed that tall people are always evil? I didn't say it, the Bible says it. Anyway, that's a joke, by the way, I don't really mean that. Verse 21, a people as great, numerous and tall as the Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them from before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, just as he did for the sons of Esau who live in Seir when he destroyed the Horites from before them.

They dispossessed them and lived in their place even to this day. And the Avim who live in the villages as far as Gaza, the Kaphtarim who came from Kaphtor destroyed them and lived in their place. Now, of course, the last group of people that God says you don't get any of their land either is the people of Ammon. Ammon, of course, is the other son of Lot through incest.

And he said, you don't get any of their place either. But did you notice something interesting about what the people of Ammon had to drive out? They also had to drive out a generation of giants. But did you take note of how they did it? Look again, verse 21, a people great and numerous and tall as the Anakim, the Lord destroyed them from before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place.

Is that not fascinating that God's grace allowed this people who weren't, aren't any kind of people of promise to drive out a group of giants and it was the Lord who did the work. I just found that to be kind of fascinating. And so he says, you don't get any of their place either. That's not for you. That's for the disciples. That's not for you. That's for the disciples.

That's for the descendants of Lot. And so as they went through the wilderness, God revealed to them what would not be theirs. But now it's time to start looking at what will be theirs. Verse 24, we start to see some of the victories of the nation of Israel. He says, arise, set out, and pass through the valley of Arnon. Look, I have given Sihon, the Amorite,

king of Heshbon and his land, into your hand. Begin to take possession and contend with him in battle. This day, I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under the heavens, who when they hear the report of you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you. So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedahmoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace saying, let me pass through your land and I will travel only on the highway.

I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. You will sell me food, give me food for money so that I may eat and give me water for money so that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot. Just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me until I cross over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God is giving to us.

But Sihon, king of Heshbon, was not willing for us to pass through his land. For the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate in order to deliver him into your land. Into your hand as he is today. And so now that they've moved through the areas that they're not supposed to take, God says, now I'm going to begin to show you what I can do if you will trust in me.

I'm going to give the people of Sihon, king of Heshbon, into your hand. As a matter of fact, what you're about to do will cause all of the people of the land to begin to fear you. There will be a reputation about the nation of Israel that will go before you that will cause all of the people in the land to tremble. Do you know what's amazing? This promise is fulfilled

because do you know what happens when the children of Israel show up just outside of the city of Jericho? They send in a couple of spies. Do you know what the spies heard people say in the city of Jericho? I've heard that the nation of Israel is coming and that the Lord is going to deliver us into their hands. What are we going to do? Why? Because God had sent out fear

into all of the people of the promised land preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. For the coming of the nation of Israel. He kept his promise that he made right here in the book of Deuteronomy. And so he says, you go and try to make a treaty of peace with this guy Sihon. Ask him if you can come through his land in peace. Purchase food from him. Purchase water from him.

Do everything within your power to live at peace. But he's probably not going to. And that's exactly what Sihon said. He goes, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to let you come through my land. But then did you take note of what it says that God did to the heart of Sihon? Look at what it says. Verse 30. Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us

to pass through his land for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate in order to deliver him into your hand as he is today. That word hardened can also be translated confirmed. In other words, the hard obstinate heart of Sihon was confirmed by the Lord. It's much the same thing that happened with Pharaoh king of Egypt. God did not force him to do what he did not want to do.

He confirmed him in the way that he was already going. It would be as if you started to trip and rather than someone help you up, they went and just pushed you the rest of the way down. Your momentum was already going there. They confirmed the direction you were heading. That's exactly what God did with Sihon. Why did he do that? Because he wanted to deliver him

into the hands of the people of Israel. Why? Well, partially for judgment, but partially because the judgment was not going to happen. Because the nation of Israel needed to see God's powerful hand before they could move into the land. They needed to know, this new generation needed to know that God was a God of war. And God was a God of victory. That the Lord is a warrior.

That's not real popular language today, is it? But it certainly says it in the Old Testament, does it not? The Lord is a warrior and he fights for his people. And so God confirmed the heart of Sihon so that he could show that he was a warrior and that he'd fight for his people. And that's exactly what he did. It says, The Lord said to me, verse 31, See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land over to you.

Begin to occupy that you may possess his land. Then Sihon with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jehaz. And the Lord, our God, delivered him over to us and we defeated him with his sons and all his people. So we captured all his city at that time and utterly destroyed the men, women, and children of every city. We left no survivor. We took only the animals as the spoil of the cities

which we had captured. From Aror, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us. The Lord, our God, delivered all over to us. Only you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country and wherever the Lord, our God, had commanded us.

He said, and that's exactly what took place. God delivered them into our hand. That was the first major victory that the children of Israel, this new generation, had. But there was a second one that came up. We move into chapter three. Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan and Og, king of Bashan, with all his people, came out to meet us in battle at Edre.

But the Lord said to me, do not fear him for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon. I love the way that the Lord communicates with Moses at this point in time. I'm going to point out why in just a moment it's important that he tells them not to fear. But I want to, for a second, just point out the fact that God knew that Moses was fearful at this point in time.

They had just won a major victory and yet all of a sudden there was another battle to face. Do you ever feel that way? Oh man, I just overcame this obstacle. Oh no, there's another battle. I thought I'd just finished and now there's another one that I've got to face. And if that's you tonight, if you feel like, man, I just thought I crossed the obstacle. I just thought I met the battle head on

and I won and I don't even have time to celebrate because now there's another battle that sits right behind me. God wants you to know something. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid because in the same way that he won that battle that you haven't had time to celebrate yet, he's going to bring you victory in this one too. Because that's what he's going to do. Because that's who God is.

Because he's with you and he'll always provide for you and he'll always take care of you. I don't know about you, but for me right now, it feels like every day is another battle. It feels like in the world we're living in right now, every day is just another battle. And we need to be reminded that in the same way that God won the victory for us yesterday, he's still going to win the victory today.

We do not need to be afraid of them. We do not need to be afraid of it because he is the same God today that he's always been and he will bring us the victory. He goes on to say, to the Lord our God delivered Og, king of Bashan, with all his people into our hand and we smote them until no survivor was left and we captured all his city at that time. There was not a city which we did not take from them.

60 cities, all the region of the Argab, the kingdom of Og and Bashan. I want to point out verse five to you. All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates and bars, besides a great many unwalled towns. Now that language that Moses just used there was really important. This battle that they just won that they were a little bit fearful of was really important

because what were these cities surrounded by? They were fortified with high walls. Does that sound familiar? What'd they say in chapter one? Why did they not want to go into the land? Why were they scared of the people of the promised land? Because they had great cities with fortified walls and yet Moses just told them, you took over all of the people of Og of Bashan

and they had great cities with fortified walls. Why was Moses specific to point that out? Because they weren't done yet. Because, the battles they're winning now are to prepare them for the battles that are coming. Past victory prepares us for future obedience. Past victory prepares us for future battles. And that's exactly what God did with the people. It goes on from there to say,

verse six, we utterly destroyed them as we did to Sihon, king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men and women and children of every city. But all the animals and the spoil of the cities we took, thus we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan from the valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon. Sidonians call Hermon, Sirion, and the Amorites call it Sinir. All the cities of the plateau and all Gilead and all Bashan as far as Seleka and Edre, cities of the kingdom of Og and Bashan.

For only Og, king of Bashan, was left, of the remnant of the Rephaim. Oh, that's a name we've heard before. The fearsome people. Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead. It is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits and its width four cubits by an ordinary cubit. Some of the commentaries that I read said that that meant that his bed was somewhere around 14 foot long

by about six foot wide. That was a big dude. That's a big guy. Now, why was it important that when they were about to face Og, king of Bashan, God came to Moses and said, don't be afraid of them. Don't be afraid of him. Because what were the two things that they feared the most about the promised land? The high-walled cities that were fortified and the giants

that were in the land. Why did God allow them to face Og, king of Bashan? Why did he allow them to face him? Because they had walled, fortified cities and he was a giant. It's almost like God was preparing them to take the promised land. Isn't that great? Every victory prepares us for the next battle. Every victory prepares us for the next difficult thing. And brothers and sisters,

we need to understand this. There is no such thing on topside of planet Earth where all of a sudden the battles stop and they get easier. We need to get that out of our heads. I have to get that out of my head. Right? I can sometimes still have the Hollywood version of things in my mind where one day I will ride off into the sunset, preferably on a sweet horse

because I do like horses, and ride off in the sunset and I will never face another battle again. Right? I haven't quite determined when that age is going to be. That age keeps seeming to get older. I think at this point in time it's somewhere around the age of 65 that I will ride off into the sunset. And I will never face another hard thing in my life. I have a feeling that

by the time I hit 65 I will say, by the time I turn 80 I will ride off into the sunset, if I still can, on a horse, and I will never face another battle again. And I'm sure at the age of 80 I will go, there's no horse, there's no sunset, and there's always going to be another battle. If we will begin to understand that now, then we will stop being shocked that the next thing just got hard. I think in the world that we're living in today we need to stop being shocked that there's another battle that we face.

Because they probably thought, yay, we defeated Sihon. Whoa, there's another guy coming in, man. Is he huge? Hey, we defeated him. Hey, there's still a promised land that's full of, guess what? Fortified cities and giants. Really cool grapes, but also fortified cities and giants. It was only to prepare them for that next thing. So they moved on from there. So we took possession of this land

at that time from Aror, which is by the valley of Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities, and I gave it to the Reubenites and to the Gadites, the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og. I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh all the region of Argab concerning all Bashan. It is called the land of Rephaim. Jer, the son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argab as far as the border of the Gath.

The Esherites and the Meachathites and called it, that is, Bashan after his own name. Havath Jer, as it is to this day. To Macher, I gave Gilead to the Reubenites and the Gadites. I gave from Gilead even as far as the valley of Arnon, the middle of the valley as a border, and as far as the river Jabbok, the border of the sons of Ammon. The Arabah also with the Jordan

as a border from Chinareth, even as far as the sea of Araba, the salt sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east. Then I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God has given you this land to possess it. All you valiant men shall cross over armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel. But your wives and your little ones and your livestock, I know that you have much livestock, shall remain in your cities, which I have given you until the Lord gives rest to your fellow countrymen as to you.

And they all possess the land which the Lord your God will give them beyond the sea. Then you may return every man to his possession, which I have given you. Of course, that section just recounts for us the fact that Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh all wanted to stay on that east side of the Jordan. And so God said, Okay, you can do that, but you need to go over and help your brothers fight.

And when that's done, you can go back and possess your land. Well, now we come to preparing the next leader. So we pick up in verse 21. It says, I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So the Lord shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. Do not fear them, for the Lord your God

is the one fighting for you. He has some commands for Joshua. We'll deal with his pleading with the Lord in just a moment. But before then, he said, At that point in time, I had to begin to prepare Joshua to be the one who would take you into the land. We'll read the original reason why Moses couldn't lead them into the land in just a moment. You know it because we've covered it.

But I'll remind you of the fact that Moses in the Old Testament always represents the law. And the law could never lead them into the promised land. The only one that could lead them into the promised land was Joshua. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word Joshua means Yahweh is salvation. That Hebrew word, translated into the Greek, is the word Jesus. The law could never lead them into the promised land.

Only Joshua could do that. And the law can't lead us into the promised land. Only Jesus can do that. All these wonderful lessons and rules that we learn in the Old Testament are incredibly important and they lay the groundwork for the righteousness of who God is. But ultimately, we can never be that in and of ourselves. Because laws can never make us righteous.

Only Jesus can do that. Only the changing of our heart can do that through the work of Jesus Christ. I, like many of you, was very sad when the value them both amendment did not pass. It was a sad day for me. It was a sad day for the state of Kansas. But I was reminded of a truth. We cannot ever legislate righteousness. We can make all of the laws in the world

that we want to. But they will never change the heart of people. Because abortion, much like any other murder, is bound up in the heart of sinful man. And the only thing that can rid us of that kind of sin in the heart is the work of Jesus Christ. That's the only thing that can ultimately change it. And I've not really addressed this since it happened because I got sick right after it happened

and hadn't had a chance to really speak about it too much. But I just want to remind you that I want to remind us as a body of believers that our job has not changed because a law wasn't passed. Our job as believers in Jesus Christ was going to be the same whatever happened on that Tuesday. Whatever happened in that election. Whatever happened in that ballot initiative.

Our job remains the same. We continue to tell people that they've been created in the image of God. Therefore, their life has great value. We continue to tell people that they're only human. The hope for salvation is in Jesus Christ. And we continue to encourage young mothers that there is hope even though they've made a bad decision. Even though life is not working out

the way that they had planned for it to. And it is important at this point in time even more than it was before because of what's probably about to take place in the state of Kansas given the failure of this initiative. It's more important than ever that we as the church, really be the church and not be people of condemnation. Not be people of judgment. But be people who are extending

the hand of grace. The hand of love. And the hand of the truth of Jesus Christ to all of these young folks that are being convinced that what they're dealing with is simply a choice and not a life. A law would never change the heart of man. Only Jesus can do that. And so, Moses had to prepare Joshua because though he is a type, he was still a man. He had to prepare Joshua

to take the people into the promised land. And that's exactly what he does. And I love what he presents to Joshua. The first thing he says is, verse 21, your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. Your eyes have seen everything that God has been doing up to this point in time. Again, I will tell you, past victories, prepare us for future obedience

because they are faith-building things in our lives. They build our faith because we look and we say, hey, I've seen God do it before. I can believe he's gonna do it again. It's a little bit easier for me to believe this time than it was before because those past victories are of utmost importance in our life. That's why I think one of the greatest things you can do is journal those things

that God has done in your life. Write them down. I don't even care if all you write is, God answered my prayer. Make it as ambiguous as you want to, but I think that's a really important thing to do because when you look back on your Bible that has that note in it, on your notebook that has that note in it, whatever it is, you go, I can trust that God can handle this because look how he answered my prayer back then.

He said, your eyes have seen what God has done. Now, therefore, in light of that, he tells them in verse 22, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, he says to you, do not fear them. I think I can most relate of all of the people, other than maybe Timothy in the New Testament, of all of the people in the Old Testament, I can relate to Joshua the most. You know why?

Because you should keep count sometime of how many times Joshua has to be told, do not fear. Just read through Joshua chapter one. I think it's like seven times in Joshua chapter one that God tells him, don't be afraid. And what does Moses tell him even before? God tells him all this, do not fear. Why? Because I think that though Moses was this great man of faith,

Joshua was a nervous guy, right? Like he found himself going, yeah, I mean, that seems good. Okay, sure. Some people, some people take on greatness. Other people have it thrust upon them. I'll be the one that has it thrust upon them. So he keeps telling them, don't be afraid. Don't fear them. Because where you're going is a land of fortified cities and giants.

Don't be afraid of them. But then he tells them why he cannot be afraid of them. Why he can find confidence. Why? Because verse 22, the Lord your God is the one fighting for you. The Lord your God is the one fighting for you. I don't think we can tell ourselves that enough, remind ourselves of that enough. When I'm dealing with the temptations of life, it's the Lord who is fighting for me.

When I'm dealing with the difficulties of life, it is the Lord who is fighting for me. It is God who is on my side, and he is the one fighting that battle. It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, declares the Lord of hosts. He tells them, don't be afraid of him. Not because of how great you are, not because of the great leader you are, but because God's the one fighting for you.

Well, then we move into verse 23. And Moses kind of tells us about his temper tantrum. I don't know how else to put it than that. He says, I also pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, you've begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours?

Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country in Lebanon. But the Lord was angry with me on your account. Not listen to me. The Lord said to me, enough. Did you take note of the exclamation point? Enough. Speak to me no more of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah. Lift up your eyes to the west and the north

and the south and the east. And see it with your eyes. For you shall not cross over this Jordan. Moses gives it a last ditch effort, right? Moses says, I pleaded with the Lord. Pleaded with him, Lord, please let me go into the promise. Man, I am seeing what you're doing right now. I am seeing the victory that I knew was possible 40 years ago. I'm actually starting to see it with my own two eyes.

I just want to see more. I just want to see you do even more. I just want to see you keep going. But God was angry with me because of you people. That's a great statement by Moses, isn't it? Of course, we remember that moment when God said, here's what I want you to do. Once you go, once you take your staff, gather all the men around you, just like you did the first time.

Only this time, speak to the rock. The water will come flowing out. So Moses gets up in front of the people. Starts off well, takes his staff. So far, so good. Gathers his elders around him, okay? Batten a thousand so far. Then he opened his mouth. Isn't that oftentimes when things go downhill for us? The moment we open our mouth. That's what makes my job so dangerous.

He opened his mouth and he said, shall we keep providing water for you? And in his anger, he struck the rock. God in his grace caused the water to pour forth. But Moses not only misrepresented God, but he took some of the credit for himself. He didn't believe that God was able to do what he said he was able to do. And God said, hey Moses, let's talk. I can't let you go in.

You didn't do it the way I told you to. You didn't believe me. You didn't honor me. So you can't go in. And Moses said, please. I'm seeing all the victory. Can I please go in? And much like we have to do with our kids sometimes, God put his foot down and said, enough. Don't speak to me about this anymore. And Moses goes, okay. God said, when all is said and done,

I'll take you up on top of Mount Pisgah. And I'll let you look out and I'll let you see all the land. But you can't go in. But isn't it amazing that God in his grace did eventually allow Moses to go into the promised land. And who was it that allowed Moses into the promised land? It was Jesus on that Mount of Transfiguration. I was thinking about this and I was thinking,

isn't it just like Jesus? That what? That what we screw up with our sin, he covers with his grace. And though Moses wasn't able to do some things on top side of planet earth because of his sin, Jesus in his grace said, I think it's time. Why don't you see what the promised land looks like from the inside? So he allowed him in. But at this point in time, he says no.

Then God gives commands to him. He says, verse 28, but you charge Joshua. And you encourage him and you strengthen him for he shall go across at the head of this people and he will give them as an inheritance, the land which you will see. So we remained in the valley opposite Beth Peor. I love what God tells Moses at the end of this. He says, instead, what you need to do,

you don't get to go in. Instead, what you need to do is you need to build up Joshua in every way that you can, because Joshua is going to take them in. And it's an amazing reminder for me that we have to continue to build up the next generation. The next generation in every way possible. We need to build them up. We need to prepare the next generation without judgment and without insecurity.

We can't build them up. We have to build them up without the judgment of saying, you're not doing it the way I would have done it. You're just a kid. You don't know what you're doing. You do things different than me. Therefore, you do them wrong. We have to build up the next generation without doing so with judgment, because it's so easy for those of us that have been there

to look at the next generation and say, you're just a bunch of, you're just a bunch of worthless kids. Forgetting the fact that we were all at one point in time a bunch of worthless kids. I remember listening to Chuck Smith talk about that hippie generation that came up and he said, I just wanted to tell them, quit being so lazy and get a job. And then God gave me a heart for them.

And how many of us oftentimes can look at this younger generation and we can think to ourselves, quit being so lazy, and get a job. Well, Chuck Smith looked at you all the same way. We have to remember to raise them up without judgment. We also have to remember to raise them up without insecurity. In other words, my great desire is to see whoever comes up after me

do even better than me. Go even farther than me. I love that these young kids that are coming up now, taking over the youth group right now, have an even bigger youth group than I had. It's an amazing thing to see. And I love it. Because it means we're raising up the next generation to continue to raise up the next generation. Because that's exactly what God told Moses

he was to do with Joshua. Because brothers and sisters, the church doesn't end with us. It continues to carry on through the next generation of believers in Jesus Christ. And so he prepared that next generation. He prepared Joshua to take over and continue to lead the next generation. And next week, as we get into, to chapter four, we'll start looking at what God expects

of the nation of Israel. Would you bow with me? Lord, we come before you and we thank you for these examples as always of the nation of Israel that had their ups and downs. But Lord, whatever their ups and downs were, you were with them, you provided for them, and you fought for them. And Lord, we pray that we would rest in those things in our lives. That we would rest in the fact that

you're with us. And that you provide for us. And that you fight for us. The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is mighty in battle. Lord, help us to rest in that. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.